Matt Smith Will be The Doctor Until at Least 2014

Matt Smith has revealed he will continue to play The Doctor for at least another two years, until 2014.

Talking to The Sun, Smith said he was convinced to stay after talking with Stevan Moffat about his ideas for the next season.

“

His first episode sounds great. It hasn’t been written yet but the idea is as brilliant and as mental as you’d expect from Steven. So there’s a lot to look forward to.

He explained, "His first episode sounds great. It hasn’t been written yet but the idea is as brilliant and as mental as you’d expect from Steven. So there’s a lot to look forward to.

“When Steven was going to pitch the next season to me not long ago, he said, ‘Are you ready to cry?’”

Smith's Doctor will be back on screens later this autumn, but the star is already looking ahead to the 50th anniversary celebrations of the popular time traveller next year. He explained, "We want to do 50 years — and everyone that’s been associated with the show — justice.

"We want to go, ‘Look, world, here is Doctor Who. It’s 50 years old, a science-fiction show, still going and going from strength to strength’.

"Steven will do something brilliant. He’ll do something grand or maybe something very simple but he’ll come to it as a fan. He’ll go, ‘What would I want to see?’"

Smith also admitted that his continued tenure as The Doctor wasn't something he saw coming, as he felt rather overwhelmed by the role when he first took it on from David Tennant.

“If you remember, when I took over, no one thought it would work. I was ‘too young’. David had come from a stellar era. I was unknown," he said.

"For a month or two when I started I was like, ‘This is impossible. I can’t’ — just the pressure of it. Everyone was sort of going, ‘Go on, show us what you’ve got.’ I told myself, ‘If I can get through this I can get through anything’."

The latest series of Doctor Who is expected to start airing this month.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.